Reunion Event - Saturday 30th June 2007
Our reunion this year was organised mainly for those who didn’t have the chance to join us at our reunion last year. With a crowd of 170+ it was again, a definite success.
Many guests were from the 1950’s – 60’s era; we also had a good few from the 1940’s! We were prepared for rain this year, so when it happened at the beginning of the day it didn’t ‘dampen’ our spirits. However, it stopped for the rest of the day much to our delight.
The morning started off with welcome speeches in the Arlington Arts Centre auditorium. Joining me in welcoming the guests was current Principal Tony Shaw. He provided our alumni with an insight into the activities of Mary Hare on the whole and not just the school. There are some excellent facilities in place for the pupils at Mary Hare. This year saw the refurbishment of the Youth Club. It was re-launched as an American Diner and it is fantastic. The American fridge and cooker were both donated from one of our Alumni members; Richard Cole; he and his friends organised a wonderful party earlier this year and raised money for them. In September, there will be a new Media Studies department & it will be fully equipped with Apple Mac computers, which match the high standards of the media industry.
The speeches finished with various video clips of all of the previous Christmas productions from both the primary and secondary school. Our guests then made their way to the conservatory with marquees on the lawn for lunch, which was prepared in-house by the catering team. This year, lunch came individually prepared which saved the long queues and allowed everyone to sit down inside the marquees at the same time.
After a leisurely lunch, everyone went on tours of the schools led by guides and current teachers at Mary Hare. This was the highlight of the day and many enjoyed their trip down memory lane –there were stories being told by different people almost everywhere you went! The day ended back at the Arlington Arts centre with a lovely selection of home-made cakes and refreshments.
We would like to express a huge amount of thanks to Paul and his catering staff for preparing the delicious lunch and thanks to all of the staff who came in and opened their departments and led tours. Thanks also go to our volunteers who helped out on the day. We hope you will join us again in a few years time where we hope to run reunion events in a different format which will allow you to be with friends of your own era.
Meanwhile for news on our activities, come back and check out our website. You can use the links below to view some photos of the day.
Simone Goldberg
Photographs
Photo Galleries of the 2007 Reunion taken by Kreb Dragonrider, published on his Mary Hare History website
We would like to thank the Mary Hare History web-site for these photos.
